Browsing PhD Dissertations - DO NOT EDIT by Title
Now showing items 84-103 of 132
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Origins and Maintenance of Diversity in a Vertebrate Parthenogen
(2017-01-02)Clonal lineages are expected to experience a decline in fitness over time due to their inability to decouple deleterious and beneficial alleles. Individually, however, asexual populations pass twice as much of their DNA ... -
PHENOTYPIC EVOLUTION OF MIDDLE AMERICAN TREE FROGS: ALLOMETRIC EFFECTS, AND LARVAL AND ADULT EVOLUTIONARY INDEPENDENCE
(2016-10-25)The shape and size of vertebrates is shaped by adaptive processes and phylogenetic relationships, and constrained by mechanical and developmental constraints. We quantified the diversity of the skull using geometric ... -
Phylogenetic Relationships And Feeding Behavior Of Neotropical Snail-eating Snakes (Dipsadinae, Dipsadini)
(Biology, 2013-03-20)The snake subfamily Dipsadinae contains more than 350 ecologically diverse species in about 32 genera. Members of the tribe Dipsadini are gastropod specialists, and many possess a suite of adaptations for eating snails. ... -
Phylogenetic Systematics Of Dispholidine Colubrids (Serpentes: Colubridae)
(Biology, 2013-03-20)Dispholidine colubrids are a group of arboreal African snakes that are distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Despite their vast distribution and medical significance, the systematic relationships of this group remain ... -
Phylogenetic Systematics, Population Genetics, And The Evolution Of Color Pattern Polymorphism And Coralsnake Mimicry In The Snake Genus Sonora
(Biology, 2013-03-20)Mimicry is a widespread biological phenomenon and is simply defined as the resemblance of one organism to another for some sort of protective purpose. Specifically, Batesian mimicry occurs when a harmless species imitates ... -
Phylogeography And Geographical Variation Of Behavioral And Morphological Characteristics In Paruroctonus boreus
(Biology, 2008-09-17)Specimens of Paruroctonus boreus were collected from twenty-four sites to assess the geographic variation in behavioral, morphological and molecular traits. Statistical analyses showed males demonstrated a positive response ... -
Phylogeography of the American Green Treefrog Species Group
(2016-12-08)The southeastern United States is an important temperate biodiversity hotspot, housing a multitude of endemic species and multiple large rivers fragmenting their ranges. To determine if the Riverine Barriers Hypothesis ... -
PIF transposable elements domestication and genetic novelty in insects
(2022-05-17)Transposable elements or TEs, are selfish genetic elements that represent a major component of a eukaryotic genome. They are genetic units that can move and amplify within a host genome. Mobilization of these TEs can be ... -
Plant Immune Defenses Against The Human Pathogens Escherichia coli O157:H7 And Salmonella enterica
Several pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms reside on plant leaf surfaces while bacteria being the most abundant of them all. Often bacteria not only use the plant leaf surface as their habitat but also penetrate ... -
Population and reproductive dynamics of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) in Texas reservoirs: Predicting the sustainability of zebra mussel populations in warmer waters
(2020-05-28)Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) are highly invasive freshwater bivalve mollusks, introduced to the United Sates in the late 1980’s, and known for forming dense colonies that can encrust boat hulls and motors, damage ... -
POPULATION GENOMICS AND CONSERVATION OF TEXAS CAVE AND SPRING SALAMANDERS (PLETHODONTIDAE: EURYCEA)
(2020-08-18)Understanding species boundaries and gene flow among the cave and spring salamanders of the central Texas region (genus Eurycea) has been a challenge for many decades. Although previous research has greatly increased our ... -
PROTEIN/NUCLEIC-ACID STRUCTURE AND SEQUENCE REQUIREMENTS FOR SPECIFYING SECOND-STRAND CLEAVAGE AND SECOND-STRAND SYNTHESIS DURING THE INTEGRATION OF THE SITE-SPECIFIC LINE R2Bm
(2017-08-09)Long interspersed nucleotide elements (LINEs) are major drivers of genomic landscaping events in many eukaryotic genomes. LINEs encode a multifunctional protein that binds to their own mRNA, recognize and cleave target ... -
Proximate Behavioral And Morphological Mechanisms That May Mediate Intraguild Predation Stability In The Anisoptera
Intraguild Predation (IGP) is a form of interference competition characterized by an intraguild predator consuming interspecific competitors, the intraguild prey. This interaction is extremely common in nature, but ... -
Rate Of Diversification In Crickets (Orthoptera: Ensifera) And A Possible Role Of F Supergroup Wolbachia In Bush Crickets
(Biology, 2007-09-17)Part I: Rates of speciation can tell us more than how many species have survived over a period of time. They indicate whether there are some characteristics of organisms or biogeography scenarios facilitate or hinder ... -
Rattlesnake genomics illustrate patterns of speciation, adaptation, and links between genome structure and function
(2019-08-13)Understanding the origins of species and biological novelties that allow them to thrive in diverse environments is a key goal in evolutionary biology, and new genomic methods are constantly enabling research using non-model ... -
Reproductive Isolation In Drosophila: From Behavior To Genome
(Biology, 2010-11-01)In this study, I investigate factors underlying reproductive isolation in Drosophila. I begin (Part I) by measuring behavioral isolation between Zimbabwe and cosmopolitan D. melanogaster, and asking the following questions: ... -
RESPONSE OF MICROBIAL NETWORKS AND MICROBIOMES TO THE FOREST-TO-PASTURE CONVERSION IN AMAZON SOILS
(2016-11-30)The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest ecosystem in the world, and an extremely important region ecologically. Due to the growing human needs mainly for cattle ranching and cultivation, the rainforest has ... -
The Role Of Life History In The Toxicity Of The Toxic Golden Haptophyte Prymnesium parvum
(Biology, 2013-03-20)Prymnesium parvum is a harmful algal species that causes widespread fish kills. It is usually motile, but non-motile stages have been observed that may represent an encysted stage. The relationship of these life history ... -
Saponins As Agents Preventing Infection Caused By Waterborne Pathogens
(Biology, 2013-10-23)Waterborne diseases are the leading cause of deaths globally, estimated to result in more than 3.4 million deaths and approximately 4 billion cases of diarrhea annually according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The ... -
Seasonal And Habitat-based Prey Diversity Of Bobcats, Lynx Rufus, In Big Bend National Park, Texas
(Biology, 2014-07-14)The bobcat (Lynx rufus) population in Big Bend National Park (BIBE) provides an excellent opportunity for study due to the varied arid habitat in which they exist, the dynamic nature of their environment, and the paucity ...